Newsom Plans to Transform San Quentin, Home to Death Row, Into Rehabilitation Center

March 18, 2023 By Janie Har and Sophie Austin 2 Comments

The infamous state prison on San Francisco Bay that has been home to the largest death row population in the United States will be transformed into a lockup where less-dangerous prisoners will receive education, training and rehabilitation, California officials announced Thursday.

At a press conference on Friday, Newsome said he hopes to implement these new strategies by 2025.

The inmates serving death sentences at San Quentin State Prison will be moved elsewhere in the California penitentiary system, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced, and it will be renamed the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Most of California’s nearly 700 inmates facing such sentences are imprisoned at the facility, though some have already been moved.

“Today, we take the next step in our pursuit of true rehabilitation, justice, and safer communities through this evidenced-backed investment, creating a new model for safety and justice – the California Model – that will lead the nation,” Newsom said in a statement.

Victim’s right advocates were quick to react. “He seems to have completely forgotten the victims, I mean I think this is affront to the victims because we’re saying at least there is still an element of punishment and accountability that should happen in state prison before you get your chance to earn your way out,” Nina Salarno Besselman of Crime Victims United said.

The governor planned a visit Friday to San Quentin, which is also the California location where prisoners were once executed, though none have been put to death since 2006. Newsom announced a moratorium on executions in 2019 and dismantled the prison’s gas chamber, and in 2022 he announced plans to begin transferring inmates sentenced to death to other prisons.

Full details of the plan were not immediately made public, though officials said the facility would concentrate on “education, rehabilitation and breaking cycles of crime.” Newsom was expected to share more during his visit, the second stop on a four-day policy tour that he’s doing in lieu of a traditional State of the State address this year.

“When you’re there, the goal is to ensure you do not come back and right now, what we have is not working,” Jay Jordan of Alliance for Safety and Justice said.

Newsom’s office cited as a model Norway’s approach to incarceration, which focuses on preparing people to return to society, as inspiration for the program. Oregon and North Dakota have also taken inspiration from the Scandinavian country’s policies.

In maximum-security Norwegian prisons, cells often look more like dorm rooms with additional furniture such as chairs, desks, even TVs, and prisoners have kitchen access and activities like basketball. The nation has a low recidivism rate.

“This isn’t shortening sentences, this isn’t a get out of jail free card, this is ‘Hey what do you need to be successful?’ Let’s give you that so you can get out and do what you need to do,” Jordan said.

At the overhauled San Quentin, vocational training programs would set people up to land good-paying jobs as plumbers, electricians or truck drivers after they’re released, Newsom told the Los Angeles Times.

A group made up public safety experts, crime victims and formerly incarcerated people will advise the state on the transformation. Newsom is allocating $20 million to launch the plan.

Republican Assemblymember Tom Lackey expressed criticism of Newsom’s criminal justice priorities, saying the governor and state Democratic lawmakers should spend more time focusing their efforts on supporting the victims of crime.

“Communities win when we have rehabilitative efforts, but yet, how about victims?” Lackey said. “Have we rehabilitated them?”

Meanwhile Taina Vargas, executive director of Initiate Justice Action, an advocacy group based in Los Angeles, said she is pleased the state is moving toward rehabilitating incarcerated people but more drastic changes are needed to transform the criminal justice system that imprisons so many people.

“Over the long term, I think we want to prevent people from going to prison in the first place, which means that we want to offer more opportunities for high paying jobs in the community,” she said.

California voters upheld the death penalty in 2016 and voted to speed up executions. Newsom’s decision to halt them in one of his first major acts as governor drew swift pushback from critics including district attorneys who said he was ignoring the voters.

But Californians have also supported easing certain criminal penalties in an attempt to reduce mass incarceration as part of a more recent movement away from tough-on-crime policies that once dominated the state.

San Quentin is California’s oldest correctional institution, housing one maximum-security cell block, a medium-security dorm and a minimum-security firehouse.

Inmates on death row will not have their sentences changed, but they will be transferred to other facilities, according to Newsom’s office. Today there are 668 inmates serving death sentences in California, almost all of them men, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The prison has housed high-profile criminals such as cult leader Charles Manson, convicted murderers and serial killers, and was the site of violent uprisings in the 1960s and 1970s.

But the prison in upscale Marin County north of San Francisco has also been home to some of the most innovative inmate programs in the country, reflecting the politically liberal beliefs of the Bay Area.

Click here to read the full article at KABC7

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L.A. Riders Bail on Metro Trains Amid ‘Horror’ of Deadly Drug Overdoses, Crime

March 16, 2023 By Rachel Uranga 1 Comment

Matthew Morales boarded the Metro Red Line at MacArthur Park as classical music blared over the station loudspeakers.

It was rush hour on a Tuesday afternoon, and Morales made his way to a back corner seat and unfolded a tiny piece of foil with several blue shards of fentanyl. As the train started west, he heated the aluminum with a lighter and sucked in the smoke through a pipe fashioned from a ballpoint pen.

Doors opened and closed. A few passengers filed in and out. A grain of the opioid fell to the floor. He concentrated on trying to pick it up, then lost track, as his body went limp. His shoulders slumped and he slowly keeled forward.

By the time the train arrived at the Wilshire/Western station, Morales, 29, was doubled over and near motionless, his hand on the floor. The train operator walked out of the cabin, barely glancing at him as she passed — as if she encountered such scenes all the time.

Drug use is rampant in the Metro system. Since January, 22 people have died on Metro buses and trains, mostly from suspected overdoses — more people than all of 2022. Serious crimes — such as robbery, rape and aggravated assault — soared 24% last year compared with the previous.

“Horror.” That’s how one train operator recently described the scenes he sees daily. He declined to use his name because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Earlier that day, as he drove the Red Line subway, he saw a man masturbating in his seat and several people whom he refers to as “sleepers,” people who get high and nod off on the train.

“We don’t even see any businesspeople anymore. We don’t see anybody going to Universal. It’s just people who have no other choice [than] to ride the system, homeless people and drug users.”

Commuters have abandoned large swaths of the Metro train system. Even before the pandemic, ridership in the region was never as high as other big-city rail systems. For January, ridership on the Gold Line was 30% of the pre-pandemic levels, and the Red Line was 56% of them. The new $2.1-billion Crenshaw Line that officials tout as a bright spot with little crime had fewer than 2,100 average weekday boardings that month.

Few stations compare with MacArthur Park/Westlake. The station sits next to an open-air drug market that’s existed in this dense immigrant neighborhood for decades. About 22,000 people board the trains here daily.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority reported that between November and January there were 26 medical emergencies at the station, the majority of them suspected drug overdoses. Last year, there were six deaths and one shooting, nearly all related to suspected drug activity. Earlier this year, a 28-year-old man was fatally stabbed in a breezeway of the station.

Maintenance crews are often called out for repairs at the station, and when they return to their vehiclethey often find it has been burglarized. Gangs control the area and police say many of the informal vendors on the sidewalks are part of the larger drug economy, wittingly or not. Some are forced to pay the gang taxes, others sell stolen property.

The transit agency’s head of security has said she will be asking the 13-member board — that includes Mayor Karen Bass and the county supervisors — to expand the agency’s force of nearly 200 in-house transit officers, some of whom are armed and enforce fare evasion and code of conduct violations. And the board will soon decide whether to continue contracts with the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Long Beach Police Department, or come up with another way to secure the system.

Some board members and social justice advocates have argued for less policing on the system, saying that racial profiling targets many passengers.

“What will harassment and jailing people who use drugs do to address drug use rates?” said Alison Vu, a spokesperson for the Alliance for Community Transit-LA, a social justice advocacy coalition that wants the agency to eliminate contracts with law enforcement. “We’ve poured so much money into policing, without any measurable impact on care or safety for transit riders.”

In response to such concerns, transit officials committed $122 million over the last year trying to make the system — composed of 105 rail stations and more than 12,000 bus stops — feel safer by placing 300 unarmed “ambassadors” to report crimes and help passengers. It’s part of what officials like to tout as a “multilayered” approach to improving a system that’s become emptier and more dangerous over recent years — even as billions have been sunk into expansion of the rail lines.

“I do think there’s something about the culture of the riding public, that if they know there’s someone who is empowered to report [illegal activity] that may be a deterrent to the activity itself,” said Metro Chief Executive Stephanie Wiggins.

Wiggins touted the rollout of the ambassador program to the news media on March 6. Followed by a phalanx of ambassadors, she boarded a Gold Line train from downtown Union Station to Heritage Square in Montecito Heights to show how what she and others call the “eyes and ears” of the system will work.

As Wiggins talked to reporters, a man in the next car was packing marijuana into a cigar wrapper. The ambassadors didn’t discourage the man as he threw tobacco on the floor to make room for the weed.

Melissa Saenz, one of several newly minted ambassadors on the train, leaned over to tell a reporter that in instances such as this she would “report it” to law enforcement. “We are here to make a change.”

But even law enforcement said they can only do so much.

During the final three months of last year, LAPD arrested 49 people on the Red Line for drug-related offenses. As of mid-February, only one of those arrests resulted in a criminal filing, said LAPD Deputy Chief Donald Graham, who oversees the department’s Transit Bureau.

Many drug possession charges in California are misdemeanors or are considered lower-level offenses. And as such, the cases are often a low priority. Evidence often sits in a crime lab for months.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported deaths linked to fentanyl rose from 109 in 2016 to 1,504 in 2021, amounting to a 1,280% increase. First responders now often carry Narcan, an opiate reversal, and they need it on the Metro.

The deaths from fentanyl and fentanyl-laced methamphetamine occur across the system. There were nine confirmed overdoses at rail stations last year, all men. But those figures will probably rise as the coroner’s office closes more cases.

There was Oscar Velasquez, 23, who died at the downtown Santa Monica station; Trivonne Vonner, 35, found at the Firestone station in an unincorporated area of South Los Angeles; and Ervin Siles Gutierrez was pronounced dead at the Vermont and Santa Monica station in East Hollywood.

“There’s so many ‘sleepers,’ ” the train driver said. “Nobody notices that the guy quit breathing until they’re blue. And then by that time, it’s too late.”

Fentanyl is a syntheticopioid drug that is 50 times more potent than heroin and cheap. A single dose can be bought for about $5. But it’s extremely addictive, in part because of the withdrawal it provokes — jitters, diarrhea, extreme anxiousness andnausea.

“It’s like the worst flu you’ve ever had in your entire life. And it just gets worse over time,” said Susan Partovi, a doctor who treats users on skid row. “That has become most of the people’s main motivation — to continue opiate use is to avoid withdrawal symptoms.”

She said overdose prevention sites, where people who are addicted could ingest drugs safely and without shame, could prevent such public nuisances as people doing drugs in elevators or on trains.

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed legislation last year to begin a pilot program of these consumption sites in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland. In his veto message, he said he was open to discussion on limited sites, but he said without a strong plan the legislation could have induced a “world of unintended consequences.”

The “sleepers” were at Union Station one recent weekday afternoon as a petite woman, who spoke little English, looked for the train to the Expo Line.

She walked into a train car that was empty but for three passed-out passengers. She looked at them and walked back out. Unsure what to do next, she stood looking confused on the platform. An ambassador came up to ask if she needed help.

“Expo,” she said.

She was on the right train, he said. But she shook her head, she didn’t want to return to the cars. So he walked her into another car and stayed with her. The doors closed.

People waited for hours to board the train when it opened in 1993.The MacArthur Park/Westlake station was the original Western terminus of Los Angeles’ first subway, with a plaza that looks out to the park.

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, used needles and human feces littered the station’s parking lot. Just around the corner near Alvarado Street, a man smoked from a glass pipe as a steady stream of people walked by.

Drug users and homeless people hang around the edges of the plaza and have breached locked areas in the station, creating a danger for riders and staff.

“It’s the most challenging [station] relative to drug use,” said Conan Cheung, Metro head of operations. “People are loitering there on the plaza and it is spilling into the ancillary areas, which makes it even more of an emergency.”

The smaller entrance is now closed off by fencing, as are large swaths inside the battered station.Transit officials recently beefed up security and the presence of ambassadors there. But they have also been trying to design away the problem by reducing the open floor space, pressure washing floors and piping in classical music to keep people from loitering. Metro is looking atreplacing the wide benches on the platform,regulating vendors and blocking off parts of the plaza.

Metro board member and Supervisor Hilda Solis asked the agency to consider another approach, and come up with a plan that will make the station and plaza more inviting to the community at large. She’s asked the agency to look at “care-centered strategies” including a vending program, health and crisis support services, cultural programming, public art, bathrooms and shade structures.

LAPD foot patrols were inside and outside the MacArthur Park/Westlake station when a Times reporter and photographer visited on a recent Tuesday.

“Most people come here to buy drugs and then they do them on the train,” said Jerry Settlemire, who emerged from the platform with his wife, Michelle.

But the changes barely registered with the couple.The two said they had recently been released from the county jail and came to cop “fetty,” as fentanyl is known on the streets.

After talking for a few moments, a jittery Michelle Settlemire began looking around.

“I’m ready to get high,” she said.

They walked away from the station to buy drugs.

Before Morales boarded the train to smoke his drugs, he was outside the station plaza in a brisk breeze as people whizzed by. Women held their children’s hands. Others talked on phones. Then there were those with drawn faces who looked as though they hadn’t slept in days. Many were thin and some, like Morales, had bloody marks on their faces or limbs. He didn’t sleep the day before but seemed happy to talk.

Click here to read the full article at LA Times

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Suspect Dead After Allegedly Shooting 3 LAPD Officers in Lincoln Heights

March 10, 2023 By Richard Winton, Christian Martinez and 4 Comments

Three Los Angeles Police Department officers were shot Wednesday night and a suspect was dead following a confrontation in the city’s Lincoln Heights neighborhood, police officials said.

The incident occurred around 6 p.m. on North Broadway at Mission Road. All three officers were expected to survive.

Officers with the Hollenbeck station were called around 3:50 p.m. to the 3800 block of Broadway on Wednesday afternoon to search for a parolee at large, LAPD Assistant Chief Al Labrada said Wednesday night at a news conference held outside L.A. County-USC Medical Center.

Officers found the suspect, who they said refused to comply with commands, and a K-9 unit was requested from the Metropolitan Division.

Officers used gas on the suspect, who still did not comply with their commands, Labrada said.

“At one point during the search,” he said, “the suspect exited and fired at the officers, wounding three … who are now listed in stable condition here just behind me.”

All of the officers who were shot were part of the Metropolitan Division’s K-9 unit.

After they were hit, other officers pulled them from the line of fire, law enforcement sources said. They were taken to the hospital by ambulances.

One officer was shot in the arm, another in the leg and a third was hit in the torso but his body armor likely deflected the round leaving him with shrapnel injuries, according to law enforcement sources.

Labrada said all three of the officers were able to speak and that their families were at the hospital.

At some point during the incident, an unknown number of officers fired at the suspect, Labrada said.

The suspect was confirmed dead Wednesday night by police officials several hours after the officers were shot. He was identified by authorities on Thursday as Jonathan Magana.

The cause and manner of his death were not disclosed.

The LAPD’s force investigation division is investigating the shooting by police, Labrada said, while the Robbery-Homicide Division is investigating the shooting that injured the officers.

“I deeply appreciate their service, and let them know that their city stands with them,” Mayor Karen Bass said at the news conference. “And I very much look forward to their recovery. My heart goes out to the officers’ families who tonight got the phone call, or the knock on the door, that they dread every day that their loved ones go on duty.”

Magana had a lengthy criminal record and in January was charged with battery on a police officer and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person in connection with an incident late last year, according to court records and law enforcement sources.

In February 2020, Magana was convicted of two felony counts of robbery connected to incidents that occurred in 2019. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison for the first count and a year in county jail for the second count. In 2014, he was convicted for selling methamphetamines.

In the aftermath of the shooting, officers, including those in full tactical gear, swarmed the Lincoln Heights site, where blockades had been erected.

A helicopter was broadcasting to residents to remain inside and lock their doors. A special weapons and tactics team with armored vehicles arrived at the scene shortly before 8 p.m.

LAPD Chief Michel Moore said on Twitter that he was monitoring the night’s events.

Sets of drones and helicopters swirled around an empty Lincoln Park Recreation Center as officers shut down parts of Valley Boulevard near the active crime scene.

A handful of joggers still ran and worked out in sweats near a children’s playground that was closed for remodeling.

One runner said she was turned around by police and told to head to the easternmost end of the park.

Click here to read the full article in the LA Times

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Jury Awards $1.5 Million to Prosecutor Who Sued DA Gascón for Retaliation

March 8, 2023 By Scott Schwebke 3 Comments

Head Deputy Shawn Randolph calls George Gascón’s administration an ‘epic failure of leadership’


A Los Angeles County jury awarded $1.5 million in damages Monday to a senior prosecutor who alleged she was transferred from a prestigious position to a “dead-end job” after complaining about District Attorney George Gascón’s juvenile sentencing policies.

The verdict in favor of Head Deputy Shawn Randolph capped a two-week trial that included testimony from Gascón, who said she was not retaliated against and was transferred as part of staffing adjustments.

The verdict marks the first time that a jury has awarded monetary damages to a deputy district attorney suing Gascón for retribution. More than a dozen prosecutors have similar lawsuits that are still pending against the controversial district attorney, who survived a recall campaign last year when supporters failed to secure enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Outside of the courtroom after the verdict, Randolph said Gascón’s tenure at the helm of the District Attorney’s Office has been “an epic failure of leadership.”

Beth Correia, one of Randolph’s lawyers, said the case “shined a light on what’s been happening in the DA’s Office.” She said her recommendation to other plaintiffs awaiting trial is to “hang tough.”

Eric Siddall, vice president of Los Angeles County Association of Deputy District Attorneys, said the verdict should send a strong message to Gascón.

“We all know what George Gascón thinks about public service,” Siddall said. “He has called lifelong public servants ‘internal terrorists.’ And he has treated them as such. He silenced their voices, he engaged in petty and vindictive acts of retaliation and rewarded political loyalty instead of competency and professionalism. Far worse, he did so at the expense of public safety.

“Today jurors spoke out against Gascón’s incompetence and condemned his illegal machinations. He sat in front of them and testified.  They listened.  And they saw right through him.”

The jury’s decision is disconcerting, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

“We are disappointed by the jury’s verdict and stand by our decision to reassign this and other attorneys to new positions within the office,” said the statement. “As any manager will tell you, moving around personnel in order to improve the level of representation this community receives is absolutely critical to a functioning office. We will consider our options over the next several days.”

Randolph, a former head deputy for the Juvenile Division, said in a 2021 lawsuit that Gascón transferred her to the Parole Division in downtown Los Angeles after she complained he had abolished the ability of prosecutors to file certain crimes against juveniles governed under California’s “three-strikes” law.

Randolph also repeatedly disclosed to her superiors that criminal charges made under Gascon’s policies for violent juvenile offenders were not “truthful charges” and that they violated the ethical and statutory duties of prosecutors. Additionally, she said the directive violated California’s Marsy’s Law by preventing families of victims from giving input into the decision on whether to try juveniles charged with homicide as adults.

Click here to read the full article in the OC Register

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California Central Valley Police Officer Shot and Killed

February 2, 2023 By Thaddeus Miller and Anthony Gallaviz 2 Comments

Selma police officer shot and killed in line of duty. Suspect arrested

A Selma Police officer was shot and killed by a suspect in the line of duty in a residential neighborhood in the Fresno County city on Tuesday. The fatal shooting occurred around 11:45 a.m. in the 2600 block of Pine Street, just west of Highway 99 and south of Rose Avenue. The officer was rushed to Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno but died there later, Selma Police Chief Rudy Alcaraz said in an update near the scene around 4:05 p.m. The officer, who was with the Selma Police for two years, was not immediately identified out of a respect for privacy of the family, Alcaraz said.

FATAL SHOOTING INCIDENT Alcaraz said the incident began when a resident noticed the suspect in the front of the house and called police. The officer arrived and found the suspect, who shot him several times before fleeing. “I’m absolutely outraged,” Alcaraz said. “I’m horrified right now. This is the worst-case scenario. “ The officer did not fire his weapon, Zanoni said. FCSO homicide detectives took over the investigation. In addition to FCSO, law enforcement from the surrounding area — including the U.S. Marshals, California Highway Patrol and police from Fresno, Kingsburg and Parlier — swarmed to the scene and established a perimeter around the location for the investigation.

ARRESTED SUSPECT HAD CRIMINAL PAST Around 12:10 p.m., the suspect was detained after a deputy spotted the suspect near Fig and Sequoia, according to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office. The 23-year-old suspect was taken into custody and a gun was later recovered a short distance from where the man was arrested, the FCSO said. The suspect’s identity was not immediately released.

THE LATEST: Suspect named, details emerge But the sheriff’s office said law enforcement is familiar with the suspect and that he has a criminal background, including charges for firearms possession and robbery. The suspect served time in prison and is currently on probation as part of California’s AB 109 law (prison realignment). According to the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office, the suspect was sentenced in March 2022 to serve 5 years, 4 months in prison. But he was eventually released by September 2022 and placed on Post Release Community Supervision, the DA’s office said. “While we mourn this tragic loss and offer our sincere condolences to the family and friends of the fallen officer,” Fresno County DA Lisa Smittcamp said in a news release, “we must also focus our energy on demanding that our legislators do more to hold criminals accountable for their actions.”

Click here to read the full article at the Fresno Bee

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California Shooting: 3 Dead, 4 Hurt in Ritzy LA Neighborhood

January 30, 2023 By Richard Vogel 1 Comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three people were killed and four others wounded in a shooting at a multimillion dollar short-term rental home in an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood early Saturday, police said.

The shooting occurred about 2:30 a.m. in the Beverly Crest neighborhood. This is at least the sixth mass shooting in California this month.

Sgt. Frank Preciado of the Los Angeles Police Department said earlier Saturday that the three people killed were inside a vehicle.

Two of the four victims were taken in private vehicles to area hospitals and two others were transported by ambulance, police spokesperson Sgt. Bruce Borihanh said. Two were in critical condition and two were in stable condition, Borihanh said. The ages and genders of the victims were not immediately released.

Investigators were trying to determine if there was a party at the rental home or what type of gathering was occurring, Borihanh said.

Borihanh said police have no information on suspects. With the shooting over, the block was sectioned off as investigators scoured for evidence.

The mid-century home is in Beverly Crest, a quiet neighborhood nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains where houses are large and expensive. The property, estimated at $3 million, is on a cul-de-sac and described in online real estate platforms as modern and private with a pool and outdoor shower.

LAPD Officer Jader Chaves said the department did not know if the house had a history of noise or other party-related complaints.

The early Saturday morning shooting comes on top a massacre at a dance hall in a Los Angeles suburb last week that left 11 dead and nine wounded and shootings at two Half Moon Bay farms that left seven dead and one wounded.

Last Saturday, 72-year-old Huu Can Tran gunned down patrons at a ballroom dance hall in predominantly Asian Monterey Park, where tens of thousands attended Lunar New Year festivities earlier that evening. He drove to another dance hall but was thwarted by an employee. Many of the dead were in their 60s and 70s.

Tran later killed himself as police closed in on the van in which he sat.

On Monday, a man shot and killed four people at the mushroom farm where he worked, then drove to another farm where he had previously worked and killed three people there, authorities said. Chunli Zhao, 66, is in jail and faces murder charges in what police called a case of workplace violence.

The killings have dealt a blow to the state, which has some of the nation’s toughest firearm laws and lowest rates of gun deaths.

Click here to read the full article in the AP News

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Suspect in Shootings at Northern Calif. Farms Was Employee

January 25, 2023 By Olga Rodriguez and Haven Daley Leave a Comment

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (AP) — An agricultural worker killed seven people in back-to-back shooting sprees at two mushroom farms that had employed him in Northern California and the massacre is believed to be a “workplace violence incident,” officials said Tuesday as the state mourned its third mass killing in eight days.

Officers arrested a suspect in Monday’s shootings, 66-year-old Chunli Zhao, after they found him in his car in the parking lot of a sheriff’s substation, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said.

Seven people were found dead, and an eighth wounded, at the farms on the outskirts of the coastal community of Half Moon Bay, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The sheriff’s office said seven of the victims were men and one was a woman. Some were Asian and others were Hispanic, and some were migrant workers.

“All of the evidence we have right now points to a workplace violence incident,” said Eamonn Allen, a spokesman with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. He said that Zhao used a semi-automatic handgun that was legally purchased and owned.

Allen said that Zhao he went in shooting at Mountain Mushroom Farm, where he worked, killed 4 people and then went to a farm where he used to work and killed another 3.

Aerial television images Monday showed police officers collecting evidence from a farm with dozens of greenhouses, which appeared to be the location where police found four dead. On Tuesday morning, police continued to block off the location.

California was still reeling Tuesday from an attack on a Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park, just outside Los Angeles, that killed 11 and cast a shadow over an important holiday for many Asian-American communities. Authorities are still seeking a motive for the Saturday shooting.

“For the second time in recent days, California communities are mourning the loss of loved ones in a senseless act of gun violence,” President Joe Biden said Tuesday morning. “Even as we await further details on these shootings, we know the scourge of gun violence across America requires stronger action.”

The new year has brought six mass killings in the U.S. in fewer than three weeks, accounting for 39 deaths. Three have occurred in California since Jan. 16, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University. The database tracks every mass killing — defined as four dead not including the offender — committed in the U.S. since 2006.

On Jan. 16, a teenage mother and her baby were among six people killed in a shooting at a home in California’s Central Valley. Officials discussing the investigation mentioned a possible gang link to the killings.

Half Moon Bay Vice Mayor Joaquin Jimenez said the victims of Monday’s attack included Chinese and Latino farmworkers. Some workers lived at one of the facilities and children may have witnessed the shooting, she said.

The Sheriff’s Office first received reports of a shooting Monday afternoon and found four people dead and a fifth wounded at the first scene. Officers then found three more people fatally shot at a second farm nearby, Allen said.

About two hours later, a sheriff’s deputy spotted Zhao’s car parked outside a sheriff’s substation in a strip mall and arrested him.

“He did not actively surrender to us,” Allen told a news conference Tuesday, declining to answer a question on why Zhao had driven to the sheriff substation.

A video of the arrest showed three officers approaching a parked car with drawn weapons. Zhao got out of the car, and the officers pulled him to the ground, put him in handcuffs, and led him away. A weapon was found in his vehicle, officials said. The video was captured by Kati McHugh, a Half Moon Bay resident who witnessed the arrest.

The sheriff’s department believes Zhao acted alone.

“We’re still trying to understand exactly what happened and why, but it’s just incredibly, incredibly tragic,” said state Sen. Josh Becker, who represents the area and called it “a very close-knit” agricultural community.

Half Moon Bay is a small coastal city with agricultural roots, home to about 12,000 people, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of San Francisco. The surrounding San Mateo County is a mixture of coastal cities and hills dotted with farms, included floral and tree nurseries as well as ranches. The county also allows cannabis to be grown in greenhouses and at nurseries in some areas.

It’s a majority-white community. About a third of the population is Latino and about 5% is Asian, according to Census data.

“We are sickened by today’s tragedy in Half Moon Bay,” said San Mateo County Supervisor Dave Pine said. “We have not even had time to grieve for those lost in the terrible shooting in Monterey Park. Gun violence must stop.”

Click here to read the full article in AP News

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24 Hours and Hundreds of Feet Apart, 2 Killings in Downtown Turlock. ‘We Will Not Tolerate’

January 18, 2023 By Deke Farrow 3 Comments

Less than 24 hours after, and just around the corner from, a fatal shooting early Saturday, another deadly shooting took place early Sunday in downtown Turlock. It’s the city’s second homicide of the year, police say. The Turlock Police Department got a 911 at 1:38 a.m. Sunday reporting a shooting behind the Udder Place and Grand Cru in downtown. Arriving officers found found 31-year-old Robert Morgan, who worked security at Grand Cru, on the ground and suffering multiple gunshot wounds. “Uninvolved persons” were administering CPR, according to a police news release. Officers assisted with lifesaving efforts until an ambulance crew arrived and took Morgan to a local hospital, where at 2:16 a.m. he died.

TPD Detective Sgt. Victor Barcelos has indicated Morgan’s shooting and one the night before are unrelated, the news release says. Officers learned that Morgan, though it was his day off, was at Grand Cru with friends. “Inside the bar, Grand Cru’s security was involved in an altercation with several male patrons of Hispanic descent. Security was able to move the involved parties outside, but the fight continued, and Morgan stepped in while off duty to assist his co-workers,” says the release. While Morgan reportedly was in a physical altercation with a man near the rear of The Udder Place, the as-yet unidentified occupant of a dark sedan stopped, got out and fired multiple gunshots at Morgan. The shooter then got back into the car and fled the scene. Detectives are examining evidence including video surveillance and interviewing “relevant parties.” Additional resources including the Major Accident Investigation Team and the Special Investigations Unit are supporting detectives in the investigation and using specialized equipment to process the crime scene. Jerry Powell, owner of Grand Cru, has voluntarily closed for two weeks to review internal processes and procedures related to evaluating and improving safety measures at his establishment, the TPD release says. “I had a discussion with Mr. Powell regarding this tragedy at Grand Cru, and he let me know he is heartbroken at the loss of a valued staff member and friend,” Turlock Chief of Police Jason Hedden says in the release. “He also informed me that he is closing his business immediately to conduct a review and ensure that Grand Cru is a safe place for both patrons and employees.” The chief adds, “I am employing new, state-of-the-art technologies and resources to combat violent crime in our city to keep our residents and businesses safe and secure. We will not tolerate this kind of activity and want our residents to know we are working hard and will continue to update the public as information can be shared during these investigations.” The Turlock Police Department asks that anyone with information about the investigation to call Detective Raul Garcia at 209-664-7314, or the department’s Tip Line at 209-668-5550, ext. 6780, or email tpdtipline@turlock.ca.us.

The gunshot fatality was the second of the weekend. Early Saturday, just after 2 a.m. in the area of Market Street and South Broadway in downtown, a shooting took the life of a 21-year-old man and wounded a 20-year-old. The man who died is Romeo Portillo, according to a Turlock Police Department news release. The release did not identify the 20-year-old. The two were passengers in a car being driven by 22-year-old Gary Jackson. Both were taken to the hospital, but Portillo later died. The release said all three men are Patterson residents.

Click here to read the full article in the Sacramento Bee

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California Deputy Fatally Shot, Suspect Critically Wounded

January 15, 2023 By Staff Report 5 Comments

LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California sheriff’s deputy was shot and killed Friday, just two weeks after another deputy in the department was slain in the line of duty.

The deaths of deputies Darnell Calhoun on Friday and Isaiah Cordero on Dec. 29 were the first since 2003 where a Riverside County sheriff’s deputy was killed in the line of duty, Sheriff Chad Bianco said.

The suspect in Calhoun’s death is in custody and was listed in critical condition after a gunbattle with a second deputy, Bianco said Friday during a news conference.

Calhoun was fatally shot in the city of Lake Elsinore, the sheriff said. He died after being taken to the hospital in serious condition.

“I shouldn’t be here tonight having to do this again,” Bianco said Friday outside the hospital. “I’m devastated to tell of the loss of another of our deputy sheriffs who was killed in the line of duty today.”

Calhoun is survived by his pregnant wife, Bianco said. He had previously worked for the San Diego Police Department — the agency said on Twitter it was “devastated” to learn of his death — before transferring to Riverside last year.

“He was the most cheerful, the most positive, the most good, wholesome man you could imagine,” Bianco said.

Calhoun, 30, was the first deputy to arrive at the scene of an disturbance around 4:30 p.m. Friday following a call of “unknown trouble” where voices could be heard in the background, indicating a struggle, Bianco said.

“At this point, we are not completely sure of the circumstances surrounding the initial contact,” Bianco said.

The second deputy found Calhoun wounded in the street and confronted the suspect in a shootout. The suspect’s identity has not been released.

Lake Elsinore is about 55 miles (88 kilometers) southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Friday’s shooting comes as the sheriff’s department is reeling from Cordero’s death. The 32-year-old was fatally shot last month during a traffic stop in the city of Jurupa Valley, east of Los Angeles.

Cordero had pulled over a pickup truck and the driver, 44-year-old William Shae McKay, shot the deputy as he approached the vehicle. Law enforcement pursued McKay in a manhunt that included a chase along freeways in two counties, authorities said.

McKay was killed during a shootout with deputies after the truck crashed.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and Cordero’s family have called for the resignation of a Southern California judge who allowed McKay’s release from custody on bail despite his lengthy criminal history.

Click here to read the full article at AP News

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Criticism of judge in the killing of a Riverside County deputy not so clear, legal experts say

January 9, 2023 By Tony Saavedra 5 Comments

Experts also chide the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office for lack of a forceful argument against reducing bail for William McKay

It’s every judge’s nightmare: San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Cara D. Hutson reduced bail for a career criminal awaiting sentencing on a third strike, allowing him to secure his release and then go on to allegedly kill a sheriff’s deputy.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco lambasted Hutson after the Dec. 29 killing of Deputy Isaiah Cordero and called for the judge to resign. So, too, did Cordero’s mother, Rebecca, receiving thunderous applause at the fallen deputy’s memorial service on Friday.

“Judge Cara Hutson,” she said, “my family is devastated. My son was a good man. My family, Isaiah’s brothers and sisters and his community demand your resignation.”

But an analysis of court documents and interviews with legal experts shows there’s more to the story.

Law experts say Hutson made a legally plausible decision to reduce bail, although probably not a practical one. And they don’t believe  Hutson should surrender her robes. They also found fault with the prosecution in the case.

‘Bad judgment call’

“It’s a bad judgment call, but not legally unreasonable,” said Rudy Loewenstein, a veteran Orange County defense lawyer and a former deputy district attorney.

Suspected gunman William Shae McKay, 44, was killed in a shootout with police after allegedly gunning down Cordero, 32, during a traffic stop in Jurupa Valley. Cordero received a hero’s funeral Friday while the public puzzled over why McKay was not behind bars under California’s “three strikes” law at the time of the shooting.

Acquitted of kidnapping

In November 2021, McKay appeared for a nonjury trial before Hutson, who was appointed to the San Bernardino County Superior Court bench in 2007 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The judge, a Democrat, previously worked as a deputy district attorney from 1994 until her appointment to the newly created seat on the bench. She was unopposed for reelection in 2022.

Hutson found McKay guilty of false imprisonment, making threats likely to result in great bodily injury, evading arrest and receiving stolen property, resulting in a third strike and leaving him susceptible to a sentence of 25 years to life. She acquitted him of two more serious kidnapping charges and reduced his bail accordingly from $950,000 to $500,000 — which McKay told the judge he could not afford.

Asked by Hutson for her input, San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Tess Ponce offered this brief opposition: “Your Honor, I think given the change of circumstances and given — just given the stakes I was going to say no bail should be appropriate. I’ll submit to the court.”

McKay ended up making bail pending his sentencing and a motion for a new trial, but he failed to show up in October 2022 for a court date and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Before he failed to appear, McKay was arrested again by Fontana police on a drug charge, but was released after bailing out, authorities confirm. There is no law that would have prohibited McKay from being released on bond again.

$500,000 bail ‘significant’

Legal experts said the $500,000 bail set by Hutson was not inappropriate.

“The judge heard the testimony and adjusted the bail after finding (McKay) not guilty of the most serious charges, and $500,000 is a significant bail,” said Katherine Tinto, director of the criminal justice clinic at the UC Irvine Law School. “According to the transcript, the district attorney did not put up a strong objection to the $500,000 bail.”

Added Tinto: “There’s no indication the judge didn’t do what a judge is supposed to do: evaluate the facts, evaluate the criminal history and consider bail.”

Lawrence Rosenthal, a professor at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law, also reviewed the transcript of the bail hearing, obtained by the Southern California News Group.

“All we get from the prosecution is a single sentence (opposing bail). There is nothing in the way of a coherent argument there,” said Rosenthal, a former federal prosecutor. “My overall reaction is that the prosecution’s handling of this matter was far from satisfactory. … I don’t think the judge’s handling of this was perfect, but the prosecution should have pushed the judge.”

Jacquelyn Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, responded: “Regardless of criticism, the bottom line is we objected to the reduction of bail, we asked for no bail.”

Details of the case

According to the records, McKay was accused of kidnapping Lisa Little, an acquaintance who had bailed him out of jail previously and cooked for him occasionally.

In March 2021, Little told San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies she was asked by McKay to house-sit and feed his dogs while he was in custody on an unrelated case.

The house was burglarized while she was briefly gone and McKay accused her of being involved. Prosecutors alleged McKay punched her in the face, took her purse, keys, credit cards and cellphone, and dragged her to his garage. He also took the car she was driving, which turned out to be stolen.

McKay tied her hands and feet with duct tape, in view of two accomplices, according to the prosecution’s presentencing report. The woman was taken to various parts of the house, while McKay and the others made purchases on her credit cards, records allege.

At times, duct tape was placed over the woman’s mouth and she was punched. She eventually broke free of her restraints and ran to a neighbor’s house, where she called police.

Later that month, the California Highway Patrol tried to pull McKay over for driving a stolen vehicle, but he led officers on a 20-mile pursuit. He and a passenger, Abrianna Valerie Gonzalez, abandoned the car when it became disabled and fled on foot, armed with knives. They were arrested after Gonzalez stabbed a police dog, which had to be airlifted to a hospital, the CHP said at the time.

Victim hands ‘not clean’

After McKay’s trial, the prosecutor disclosed that she had just discovered there was a federal indictment against the victim — allegedly for transporting fentanyl — an indictment that McKay could have used to impeach Little’s testimony. Before rendering her verdict, Hutson acknowledged that Little may not have been entirely credible.

“The Court knows that Ms. Little’s hands are not clean. I’ll just leave it that way. So she’s not an angel to this Court,” Hutson said. “That is going to be considered within the ruling and verdicts that I am going to give.”

Hutson dismissed two counts of kidnapping and kidnapping to commit rape or robbery, saying the victim was not moved a significant distance to qualify for the charges. But Hutson found McKay guilty of the other crimes.

“Here’s the problem which Mr. McKay has reiterated to the Court on more than one occasion. The way he lives his life is not necessarily the way of the legal system,” the judge said. “In this instance, the Court knows beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. McKay decided to take matters into his own hands and dispense his brand of street justice.”

‘Not going nowhere’

McKay, acting as his own attorney, then asked the judge to reset his bail.

“I’ve learned a valuable lesson in all this. I’m not going nowhere,” McKay pleaded with the judge.

Hutson told McKay that the bail schedule for false imprisonment was $500,000.

“I will not release you (on your own recognizance) because the verdict is in and I have to always be mindful of the fact that you are still looking down the barrel of a life sentence,” Hutson told him. “And so I must keep bail at $500,000 now … because the verdict has changed, circumstances have changed and I have adjusted the bail to those circumstances.”

Hutson knew when she made her ruling that McKay had two prior strikes.

Prior strikes

The first strike was a 1999 felony conviction for assault with a firearm. He was sentenced to three years in state prison. In that crime, McKay was contacted by police during a traffic stop, but quickly accelerated to get away. He led police on a 100-mph chase, driving through a Caltrans work zone and sending crews scattering to get out of the path of his vehicle, records show.

When the car became disabled, McKay fled with a gun in his hand. After initially disobeying orders to drop the gun, McKay finally tossed it aside and surrendered to police, records show.

The second strike was related to a February 2005 attack — while he was still on parole from the first conviction. A couple was in their bed when McKay and an accomplice kicked down their door, turned on the light and began beating them with objects from the room, records state.

Click here to read the full article in the Press Enterprise

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